Declan Murphy, Arlinstown,

Ballinhassig, Co Cork

The farm

I started farming here in 2003. I got a good herd off my uncle and I hope I can keep it as good or improve it and if I can I’ll be happy. There are about 125 animals here in total, with 45 pedigree Hereford cows on 39ha.

I’ve never brought a female into the herd. I used to be split evenly between spring and autumn calving but now it’s more spring calving as customers are looking for two year old bulls now.

AI

I’m 80% plus on AI. What I do after AI is I pick out the best-looking yearling bull with the best figures and leave him off to tidy up.

The AI works very well for me and I’m only here half the time as I also work in Eli Lilly in Kinsale. I use a technician and I’ve a vasectomised bull. I put a chin ball on him when he is out the field. He’s here a couple of years and is quiet and fierce active.

Genetics

English and Irish genetics is what I’m sticking to and I used a bit of Australian Herefords before. It’s nearly all horned genetics here. I sold two polled bulls this year and they made my best prices. I’d be using some Trillick George (HE2198), Allowdale Rory (HE4292), Cill Cormaic Kasper (KZP) and F.H. William (HE4080)

Quotable quote

“Calving ease is the one figure every customer will ask when they come in. Because it’s mainly dairy farmers I sell to, they mightn’t ask about stars but they all look for calving ease. Most of the younger fellas would look at the stars.”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €60.

Heifer replacement index: €67.

Calves/cow/year: 1.01.

Calving interval: 363 days.

Percentage of heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 50%.

AI-bred calves: 80%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes.

Doreen and Timothy Corridan, Fedamore, Co Limerick

The farm

There’s about 90 cows. Most are pedigree Limousin and there are a small number of dairy crosses used for embryo transfers. We sell breeding bulls. Any bulls that aren’t good enough for breeding are finished under 16 months. We have a heifer sale every two years.

Important selection traits

We want to maintain our carcase, our shape and our functionality and want to watch calving ease, milk, fertility and docility in the females and functionality and testicle size in the bulls. We record everything and every animal on this farm is genotyped. We’re trying to breed a bit of polled as well.

Sires used

We used quite a bit of Kaprico Eravelle (S2106) on heifers as he was easy-calving and had good indexes. On the cows, we used Bavardage (AGB) to lift the replacement index. We used Doudou (LM2321) to increase the milk in the cows and then we used a bit of a polled bull, Karlos PP (S3253). We have a few vasectomised bulls to aid heat detection. We use stock bulls to tidy up breeding after AI is finished.

BDGP

It’s nearly a programme before its time. It really drives efficiency. It focuses people on milk, calving difficulty and fertility.

Quotable quote

“Ireland is the best place in the world to be in pedigree breeding at the moment. With our integrated database, with our genotyping, with the amount of supports that’s there for the BDGP. We’re paid to do all the right things.”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €91.

Heifer replacement index: €85.

Calves/cow/year: 0.78.

Calving interval: 403 days.

Percentage of heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 30%.

Percentage of AI-bred calves: 80%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes.

The farm

We have about 80 acres and commonage. Forty acres is in grass and the rest is in forestry. There are 17 acres for silage near the house and yard and 23 acres for grazing. It’s difficult ground so we use mob grazing and have the cows in a small area and move them every 12 hours. We have to be careful about putting out lime and keeping the soil in good shape. We soil-sample every few years.

Stock

We run a pedigree Charolais herd of cows, selling breeding bulls. There are some bulls in G€N€ Ireland. We focus on breeding balanced animals with high maternal and terminal indexes. We imported five heifers from France about 27 years ago and another 15 not long after and built the herd from there.

Future

We’re looking at breeding a polled line. We bred heifers to Alwent Hitman (S2061) and we got some heifers out of that. We kept one and we bred her to Virgil and we have a fully polled heifer calf from her.

Selecting bulls

Calving difficulty would be number one. I think we can improve growth without compromising on calving.

We stay over 10kg for milk as they are continental cows so we don’t need bulls too high on carcase.

Low calving difficulty and docility would be two important things for us. This year, we used S956, CH2216, CH2215 and CH2204 as replacement sires.

BEEP

The new BEEP scheme will be a big improvement because there is no incentive to weigh stock in the current programme. If there could be a change made to TAMS that you didn’t have to spend a minimum of €2,000 it would be good as it would allow more farmers to purchase a weighing scales.

Quotable quote

“The fellow that will buy a polled bull wants no horns and no calving problems. You have to be around 3% calving difficulty or less. What would it mean to a dairy farmer to get easy calving polled Charolais?”

Breeding Key Performance Indicators

Herd replacement index: €130.

Heifer replacement index: €113.

Calves/cow/year: 0.95.

Calving interval: 383 days.

Percentage of heifers calved between 22 and 26 months: 45%.

AI-bred calves: 97%.

BDGP: Yes.

Regular weighing: Yes.

KT group: Yes